Capping conversion apparatus and method



Oct. 7, 1969 c. DAVID ETAL 3,470,667

CAPPING CONVERSION APPARATUS AND METHOD Filed Dec. 15, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet :5

Char/c5 00 we INVEN'I'ORS.

and Herbert F. Wheazon ATTORNEY 1969 0. DAVID ET AL 3,470,6

CAPPING CONVERSION APPARATUS AND METHOD Filed Dec. 15, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet Z3 Char/es .00 V/o INVENTORS.

\2/9 246 and Herbs/"f F Wheazon W%QM,

ATTORNEY.

United States Patent US. Cl. 53-3 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Bottling equipment commonly employed for the application of standard fluted crowns is converted for the application of smooth skirt tear-01f closures. Crowning assemblies and tear-off closure crimping heads are interchangeably attached to the standard crowner plunger assembly.

This invention relates to an improved method and apparatus for applying closures to containers and is particularly concerned with the ready conversion of automated bottling operations from the use of one type of closure cap to another.

In the bottling industry containers are filled and capped or crowned in a continuous operation performed by a single piece of equipment called the filler which includes a crowner as an integral part thereof. Illustrative of conventional equipment of this general type is that manufactured and sold by the Crown Cork and Seal Company under the Cemco trade name. The bottles in other containers after having been filled are conveyed by a star wheel underneath a crowner turret within which a plurality of crowner plunger assemblies, each incorporating a crown applying mechanism at the lower end thereof, is slideably mounted to effect the capping operation. Normal maintenance requires occasional repair or placement of these crown applying mechanisms. Such routine maintenance has heretofore necessitated complete removal of the entire plunger assembly through the top of the turret in order to gain the desired accessibility. It was only after this cumbersome and time consuming disassembly operation had been performed that what might otherwise be a very minor repair was possible.

Moreover, the recent trend toward newly designed hand removable convenience closures has brought about modification of such existing equipment in order to enable changeover from the application of standard crowns. In one instance this changeover has heretofore been accomplished again through the relatively costly and time consuming operation of removing the existing crowner plunger assemblies through the top of the turret and replacing the same with different crowner plunger assemblies having modified cap applying mechanisms for the application of a convenience cap. As can be readily appreciated this cumbersome changeover operation has done little to enhance the attractiveness, from the bottlers point of view, of convenience caps. This is particularly true when it is borne in mind that not only does normal maintenance also require occasional replacement of these modified cap applying mechanisms but in addition it has become highly desirable, though wholly impractical with prior art constructions, to convert back and forth be tween production runs using standard crowns and runs using convenience caps with a minimum of lost production time. This degree of flexibility would make it possible, for example, to run diflferent sizes of bottles receiving different closures on the same basic equipment.

Through the advent of the instant invention herein disclosed there is taught a novel method for the easy conversion of bottle capping equipment from the ap- 3,470,667 Patented Oct. 7, 1969 plication of one type of closure to another. The unique apparatus herein disclosed for carrying out that method embodies two different interchangeable cap applying mechanisms which can be simply and quickly secured or detached from the lower end of the crowner plunger assembly permanently mounted within the crowner turret. This invention thus greatly facilitates normal maintenance of cap applying mechanisms utilizing standard crown type closures as well as cap applying mechanisms utilizing convenience type closures. Furthermore the conversion back and forth from one type of cap applying mechanism to the other can be easily and economically effected with a minimum duplication of parts and with very little loss in production time.

It is accordingly an object of this invention to provide a novel method for interchangeably securing different types of closure caps to the openings of bottles and other receptacles.

Another object is to provide an improved apparatus for carrying out such novel method.

Another object is to provide an improved method and apparatus for the conversion of bottle capping operations from the application of one type of closure cap to another.

A further object is to provide an improved apparatus for securing crown type closure caps to containers.

A further object is to provide an improved apparatus for securing tear off type closure caps to containers.

A more detailed object is to provide improved cap securing mechanisms which are interchangeably mounted at the lower end of a turret housed crowner plunger.

Still further and more detailed objects of the invention will in part be obvious and in part pointed out as the description of the invention taken in. conjunction with the accompanying drawing proceeds.

In that drawing:

FIG. 1 is a vertical elevation of a crowner turret partially broken away for clarity and incorporating tear off type cap applying heads in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a tear off type cap applying head;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a crown applying head in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 4 is a vertical cross-sectioned view of the tear off type cap applying head and showing a bottle in capping position;

FIG. 5 is a bottom plan of the tear oif type cap applying head alone taken on line 5--5 of FIG. 4 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 6 is a part elevational, part sectional view of the tear off type cap applying head of FIG. 4 but in detached condition and rotated for clarity;

FIG. 7 is a vertical section of the crown applying head and showing a bottle in crowning position;

FIG. 8 is a bottom plan of the crown applying head alone taken on line 88 of FIG. 7 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 9 is a part elevational, part sectional view of the crown applying head showing an intermediate detached condition; and

FIG. 10 is a part elevational, part sectional view of a crown applying head subassembly showing another intermediate detached condition.

In FIG. 1 there is shown a crowner turret 1 incorporating a set of improved cap applying mechanisms, hereinafter referred to as heads, in accordance with the invention. The basic crowner turret is part of standard filling equipment employed in high speed bottling operations such as manufactured by the Crown Cork and Seal Company under the Cemco trade name and is seen to comprise a generally cylindrical housing 2 mounted on a central hollow drive shaft 3. The turret 1 is closed at its upper ice end by a cap 4 and has circumferentially arranged therewithin a plurality of slideably mounted plunger assemblies 5. A fixed center shaft 6 extends through the hollow drive shaft 3 and has secured about the upper portion thereof a circular plate 7 provided with a cam race 8. A radially inwardly extending cam follower 9 is mounted at the upper end of each of the plunger assemblies so as to ride within the cam race 8.

Each of the plunger assemblies 5 includes an outer cylinder sleeve 10 which depends below the turret 1 and surrounds a further downwardly extending work imparting shaft 11. A crimping head 20 for applying hand tear off closure caps is threadedly engaged to each of the shafts 11 except shaft 11a which has its head 20 detached in the manner disclosed by this invention for purposes of illustration.

Also secured to the hollow drive shaft 3 is a bottle feed star wheel 12 positioned below the turret 1 and rotatable therewith. In operation the bottles are fed in a circular path underneath each plunger assembly of the capping turret by the star wheel 12 and, as the cam followers 9 ride down the cam race 8, the plunger assemblies 5 are progressively lowered so that the crimping heads 20 secured to the lower end thereof seal a cap onto each bottle as rotational movement of the turret and star wheel continues. Upon reaching the lowest point in the cam race 8 the cam follower then moves upwardly again to its initial position thus releasing the crimping head 20 from the bottle whereupon the capped bottle is conveyed by other suitable means (not shown) away from the star wheel 12.

FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate the two different cap applying heads for interchangeable attachment to the work imparting shafts 11 at the lower end of the plunger assemblies 5. The application of hand tear off caps is effected by threaded engagement of the crimping heads 20 as illustrated in FIG. 2, to the shafts 11. Subsequent conversion to the application of standard crowns is effected by simply detaching the crimping heads 20 and substituting crowner heads generally indicated at 290 in FIG. 3.

Considering next in detail the crimping head 20, shown and described to some extent in the copending application No. 546,681 of Edward M. Wolf and Stanley J. Koll filed May 2, 1966 entitled Cap Crimping Apparatus, attention is directed to FIGS. 2, 4, 5 and 6 wherein it is seen that the work imparting shaft 11 extends downwardly beyond the cylinder sleeve 10 and is retained therewithin by the bushing 10a. The shaft 11 is provided with an axially extending bore 12 having an internally threaded lower portion 13. The lowermost end 14 of the shaft 11 is formed with an interiorally disposed annular recess 15 which is interrupted at 16 forming a keyway for a purpose described hereinafter.

The detachable crimping head itself comprises a cylindrical bushing 17 having a threaded outer surface 18 which has upper and lower unthreaded bands 21 and 22 respectively. A radially outwardly extending flange 23, provided with a pair of diametrically opposed wrench engaging slots 23a, surrounds the lower end of bushing 17 and engages the lower end portion of an annular collar 24. The collar 24 has a plurality of wrench engaging cavities 19 formed about its exterior surface as seen in FIG. 6 and is interiorly threaded at 25 for threaded engagement with the bushing threads 18. The collar 24 is locked to bushing 17 by means of a set screw 26 which engages the lower unthreaded band 22. The uppermost end 27 of the collar 24 is surrounded by a circumferential step 28. As clearly seen in FIG. 4 the bushing 17 is threadedly engaged with the lower threaded portion 13 of shaft bore 12 and locked in place by a set screw 39 which engages the unthreaded band 21 on the bushing. The collar 24 is interlockingly engaged with the shaft 11 through seating of the collar upper end 27 on the shaft recess 15 and seating of the shaft lowermost end 14 on the collar step 28. This interlocking joint between the collar 24 and the shaft 11 not only strengthens the connection therebetween but also insures exact axial alignment of the crimping head 20 with the shaft 11.

Slideably received within the bushing 17 is a cap engaging spindle 29 having an internally threaded bore 31 at its upper end which receives the lower threaded end 32 of a locking stud 33. An annular flange 34 is formed about the center portion of the locking stud. A pin 35 locks the stud 33 and the spindle 29 together and is accessible through openings 36 in the bushing 17 upon detachment of the crimping head 20 from the shaft 11. Surrounding the upper portion of stud 33 is a helical work performing compression spring 37 extending between the collar 34 and the upper end wall of the shaft bore 12 and adapted to be compressed therebetween so as to urge the stud collar 34 against the upper end of the bushing 17.

The lower portion of the spindle 29 is provided with an axially extending inernal bore 38 terminating at its lowermost end in a cap receiving nest 39. A radially outwardly extending sup-porting collar 40 is fitted about the spindle 29 adjacent the bore 38. A cap hold down member 41 consisting of a hollow tubular member closed at its lower end, is slideably received with the spindle bore 38 and retained therewithin by a pair of tangentially disposed roll pins 42. A lightweight helical compression spring 43 extending between the closed lower end of the tubular hold down member 41 and the upper end of the spindle bore 38, resiliently urges the hold down member to a downwardly extended position.

The peripheral surface of the supporting collar 40 has an arcuate convex contour upon which a plurality of annularly arranged sealing jaws 43 is pivotally supported each jaw having corresponding contoured pivot surface 44 adjacent its upper end. The jaws 43 are of identical construction and, in the illustrated embodiment, are twelve in number spaced about the cap receiving nest 39. Each jaw has a radially outwardly extending protuberance 45 adjacent its upper end which slideably contacts the inner surface of an overlying segment 46, described hereinafter, and serves to retain the upper end of the jaw in pivotal engagement with the collar 40. A radially inwardly facing crimping surface 47 is formed at the lower end of each jaw. The outer end portion of each jaw is formed with an inclined cam surface 48.

A segmental closing ring is provided for closing the jaws 43 and their crimping surfaces 47 about the cap skirt. This ring is made up, in this embodiment, or six segments 46, that is, each segment actuates two of the underlying jaws 43 by engaging the cam surfaces 48. The upper end of each segment 46 inclines inwardly into a pivot formation 49 which mates with a pivot seat 50 formed in the lower end of the collar 24. The pivot for mation 49 is retained against movement away from the pivot seat 50 by the outer surface of the bushing flange 23. The lower end of each segment 46 is radially enlarged so as to provide an inwardly facing cam surface 51 for coaction with the jaw cam surfaces 48.

An annulus 52 of resilient material is mounted about the lower portion of spindle 29 having a radially outwardly extending flexible flange which engages the inner surface of the jaws 43 and resiliently urges the jaws outwardly so that the jaw cam surfaces 48 are held in contact with the cam surfaces 51 on the segments 46.

The segments 46 forming the segmental closing ring are yieldably contained by an overload compensator spring comprising an outer cylindrical rigid housing 53 and an inner cylindrical member 54 of resilient material. Vertical upward movement of the spring is prevented by the locking band 55 secured to the collar 24 by set screw 56.

An annular retainer plate 57 is floatingly mounted below the segments 46 by means of a pair of elongated openings 58 in the plate 57 which surround screws 59 extending out of the lower end of two of the segments. An annular combination bottle guide and gripping ear wiper member 60 is in turn floatingly retained within the central opening in plate 57 by means of four radial supporting lugs 61 which nest within the retainer plate 57 beneath the jaws 43.

In operation the crimping head 20 is lowered with respect to a bottle 70 which has loosely seated thereon a light weight metal tear off cap 80 comprising a disc-like top 81 surrounded by a smooth depending skirt 82 having a gripping ear 83 of any desired configuration, such as a simple tab or a finger ring, extending outwardly therefrom. The cap hold down member 41 bears against the cap top 81 with the spring 43 being compressed until the cap nest 39 presses the cap against the underlying bottle lip and the anvils 47 surround the cap skirt 82. Continued downward movement of the segments 46 relative to the now stationary jaws 43, cams the anvils 47 radially inwardly crimping the cap skirt 81 into tight sealing engagement with the underlying bottle neck. Upward movement of the crimping head 20 restores the parts to their initial relaxed position.

Considering now the crowner head 200 in detail, attention is directed to FIGS. 7-10. The work imparting shaft 11, here shown, to which the crowner head 200 is detachably secured is the same as that illustrated in FIGS. 4-6. The crowner head 200 comprises a cylindrical bushing 217 having an exteriorly threaded upper end portion 218 interrupted by an unthreaded band 221. The lower end portion of bushing 217 is unthreaded as indicated at numeral 222 and is surrounded by a lowermost radially outwardly extending flange 223 provided with a pair of diametrically opposed wrench engaging slots 223a. An annular collar 224 surrounds the lower portion of the bushing 217 and is provided with a pair of diametrically opposed cut away sections each of which has a hole for reception of a bolt 219. The above described construction allows the collar 224 to be fitted over the bushing 217 so as to seat upon the flange 223 and rotatably surround the unthreaded lower bushing portion 222. The uppermost end 227 of the collar 224 is surrounded by a circumferential step 228 which is interrupted at 228a to provide a keyway.

Slideably received within the bushing 217 is a cap engaging spindle 229 having a circumferentially enlarged flange 234 adjacent the upper end thereof bearing against the uppermost end of bushing 217. The uppermost end of spindle 229 above the flange 234 terminates in a short shank 233 of reduced diameter which is surrounded by the lower end of compression spring 37. A cap receiving nest 239 is formed at the lower end of the spindle 229 and is provided with a magnetic insert 238.

The bushing 217 is threadedly engaged with the lower threaded portion 13 of the shaft bore 12. The collar 224 is interlockingly engaged with the shaft 11 through seating of the collar upper end 227 on the shaft recess 15 and seating of the shaft lowermost end 14 on the collar step 228. Prior to tightening of the bushing 217 onto the shaft 11 by means of the wrench engaging slots 223m, the collar 224 is rotated on the bushing to a predetermined oriented position and locked in place by insertion of an L-shaped key 226 held in place by a screw 226a. The tightened bushing is locked in place by a set screw 330 which engages the unthreaded band 221.

The crowner platform and throat assembly, generally indicated at 440, is secured to the collar 224 by the screws 219 and is seen to comprise an annular base plate 241 having a tapped hole for reception of a threaded stud 242 which extends into a downwardly opening bore 235 formed in the collar 224. A crowner throat 243 having a crown skirt engaging surface 243a is concentrically mounted within the base plate 241 and surrounds the lower end portion of the spindle 229. A semi-circular retaining plate 244 is secured through a semi-circular spacer member 245 to the base plate 241 by screws 246. A semi-circular spring mounted guide member 247 is retained by the plate 244 and resiliently urged thereagainst by springs 248 extending upwardly from the guide member 247 into bores 249 in the base plate 241.

In operation a standard crown 280 having a fluted skirt 282 is fed into the crowned head 200 which is then lowered by the turrent mechanism described earlier with respect to an open bottle 70. The crown 280, held within the crower head by the magnet 238, is thus seated on the bottle lip by the nest 239 and, as downward movement of the crowner throat 243 continues relative to the now stationary spindle 229, the crown skirt 282 is formed by engagement with the throat surface 243a into tight sealing engagement with the underlying bottle neck. Upward movement of the crowner head 200 restores the parts to their initial relaxed position.

In a bottle capping operation the conversion from tear off type closures to crown type closures or vice versa is accomplished through the interchangeable crimping heads 20 and crowning heads 200 in the following manner. Assuming the crowner turrent 1 is equipped with crimping heads 20 for the application of tear off closures and it is desired to temporarily convert the operation over to the application of crowns 280. Each crimping head 20 as shown in FIG. 2, after loosening of the set screw 30, is threadedly disengaged, by means of a suitable wrench applied to the wrench engaging means 19, from the work imparting shaft 11 permanently mounted within the cylinder sleeve 10. A crowner head 200 as shown in FIG. 3 is then attached to each shaft 11, in which the spring 37 is retained, by first threadedly engaging the bushing 217 carrying its associated collar 224 and spindle 229, which subassembly is shown in FIG. 10, into the shaft 11. The collar 224 is rotated to its properly oriented position so that the key 226 is lockingly engaged within the keyway 16. The bushing 217 is then tightened by means of a suitable wrench applied to the wrench engaging slots 223a and locked in place by the set screw 30. The crowner throat and platform assembly as shown in FIG. 9 is then placed over the lower end of the spindle 229 with the stud 242 located in the bore 235 and secured to the collar 224 by means of the bolts 219. The turret 1 is now equipped for the application of crowns. Conversion back to the application of tear off closures by means of the crimping heads 20 is accomplished by simply reversing the above described steps.

Changes in and modification of the method and apparatus of the invention as might suggest themselves to those skilled in the art could be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is accordingly intended that all matter contained in the above description, or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as being illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having described our invention what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. The method of converting standard bottle crowning equipment from the application of crown type closures to the application of tear off type closures wherein said standard bottle crowning equipment includes a rotatable crowning turret incorporating a plurality of reciprocating plunger units each of said units including a crowner cylinder within which is mounted a hollow internally threaded work imparting shaft comprising the steps of threadedly engaging a crimping head to said work imparting shaft, and effecting random rotational orientation of said crimping head relative to said shaft, applying tear off type closures to containers with said crimping head, threadedly detaching said crimping head from said shaft, securing a crowning head to said shaft and effecting predetermined fixed rotational orientation of said crowning head relative to said shaft and applying crown type closures to containers with said head whereby interchangeable application of tear off type closures and crown type closures is effected.

2. The method of converting standard bottle crowning equipment from the application of crown type closures to the application of tear off closures wherein said standard bottle crowning equipment includes a rotatable crowning turret incorporating a plurality of reciprocating plunger units each of said units including a crowner cylinder within which is mounted a hollow internally threaded work imparting shaft comprising the step of inserting a crown type closure engaging spindle within a cylindrical bushing having an upper externally threaded portion and a lower unthreaded exterior portion, surrounding said lower unthreaded portion of said bushing with a collar member, threadedly engaging said bushing within said work imparting shaft and locking said collar to said shaft, securing a crown type closure applying mechanism to said collar, said conversion comprising removing said crown type closure applying mechanism, said collar and said bushing and hold down member from said working shaft, and threadedly engaging a tear off type closure applying head with said work imparting shaft whereby interchangeable application of crown type closures and tear off type closures is effected.

3. Apparatus for securing closure caps to containers comprising an axially moveable work imparting shaft having a hollow internally threaded lower end portion, a closure cap applying head detachably secured to said shaft lower end portion, said head having a lower cap applying mechanism and an upper shaft engaging means, said shaft engaging means including a cylindrical externally threaded bushing threadedly engaged within aid shaft lower end portion, an annular collar surrounding said bushing and operatively connected to said cap applying mechanism and means on said collar in locking engagement with said shaft lower end portion.

4. Apparatus as in claim 3 wherein said bushing has an enlarged circumferential flange at the lower end provided with wrench engaging means.

5. Apparatus as in claim 3 wherein said annular collar surrounds an unthreaded portion of said bushing and is rotatably oriented relative to said work imparting shaft.

6. Apparatus as in claim 3 wherein said annular collar is threadedly engaged with said bushing and is randomly rotatably oriented relative to said work imparting shaft.

7. Apparatus for securing closure caps to containers comprising a rotatable crowning turret incorporating a plurality of reciprocating plunger units each of said units including a crowner cylinder within which is mounted a work imparting shaft, a pair of closure applying heads adapted for interchangeable securement to each of said work imparting shafts, one of said pair of closure applying heads including a plurality of radially moveable individual crimping jaws for applying tear off type closures and the other of said pair of closure applying heads including an axially moveable cylindrical crowner throat for applying crown type closures.

8. The method of alternately applying standard fluted skirt crown caps and smooth skirt tear off closures to containers through the modification of existing bottle crowning equipment which equipment includes a rotatable crowning turret, a plurality of axially reciprocating plunger units mounted in said turret and each of said units including a crowner cylinder, comprising the steps of securing at the lowermost end of said crowner cylinder a closure crimping annulus made up of a plurality of radially contractable jaws circumferentially arranged around a center closure engaging spindle, effecting radial movement of said jaws through axial reciprocation of said plunger unit relative to said closure engaging spindle, applying tear off closures to containers with said crimping annulus, detaching said crimping annulus from said crowner cylinder, securing at the lowermost end of said crowner cylinder a crowning throat and platform assembly surrounding a center crown engaging spindle, effecting axial movement of said throat and platform assembly through axial reciprocation of said plunger unit relative to said crown engaging spindle and applying crown caps to containers with said throat and platform assembly whereby interchangeable application of tear off closures and crown caps is effected.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,308,604 3/1967 Nekola 53343 3,332,211 7/1967 Koll et a1. 53353 THERON E. CONDON, Primary Examiner R. L. SPRUILL, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R.

Sit-42, 201, 353 

